


Take Five

by mylordshesacactus



Category: RWBY
Genre: (well a modified 5+1), 5+1, Boundaries, Bullying, Coco fantasizing about murdering people with a gatling gun, F/F, F/M, Fantastic Racism, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Polyamory, Sexual Harrassment, Systemic Anti-Faunus Racism, Well It's Fluffy Before It Gets Ruined By The Racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 02:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7917223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylordshesacactus/pseuds/mylordshesacactus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Huntsmen and Huntresses can't just start fights with civilians they don't like. Velvet's words, Velvet's reasoning every time someone yanks on her ears or shouts slurs in the street. Let it go. They're not worth it. They're not a threat.</p><p>That doesn't mean it doesn't burn Coco up inside every time she grits her teeth and turns away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Five

**Author's Note:**

> or: Four Times Team CFVY Had To Stand There And Take It, And One Time Enough Was Enough

  
Coco leaned back, rested her head against the wall, and called over her shoulder.  _ “Velvet! _ You ready in there?”

“Almost,” Velvet called back.

“Let the straps out if they’re too tight!”

“I know, Coco.”

Coco forced herself to stop impatiently bouncing one foot in the air, and returned to flipping through this month’s  _ Customization and Capacity _ . The minigun could always benefit from a bit of tweaking—and there was always the chance of spotting a neat little custom idea that Velvet might like. Convincing that girl to personalize her gear and weaponry a little was like breaking an Ursa to harness, but Coco lived in hope.

The click of a latch sliding open drew her away from critically examining a rifle-sword attachment that seemed likely to compromise the structural integrity of both.

Velvet stepped out nervously, and Coco gave a low whistle before she could stop herself.

Velvet ducked her head. “I think I like this better than the pinstripes?” she offered, making a half-turn to look herself over. It was a simple enough ensemble; a plain white blouse with dramatic collar points, black-leather Y-back suspenders and black slacks with the sharpest pleats Coco had ever seen.

Not, on the surface, particularly “Velvet,” but  _ damn  _ if it didn’t work.

She didn’t realize she was grinning like a lunatic until Velvet took one look at her face and blushed scarlet.

Coco cleared her throat and tried to shake herself back to reality. “Definitely.” Her voice came out hoarse, so she coughed and tried again. “Definitely, the simple look works better. If we can find a fedora to cut some earholes in…” Velvet made a face, and she backtracked immediately. “All right, kid. No hats. Now, let’s—”

“Oh, wow.”

She would have been irritated at the interruption, but Velvet lit up as she saw the speaker, giving a little wave that was only slightly awkward. “Hi.”

“Hey, guys.” Yang Xiao Long walked up to them, waving casually to Coco. “Looking  _ good, _ Velvet! What’s the occasion?”

“Oh!” Velvet waved one hand in vague embarrassment. “It’s...Coco’s birthday.”

“Wait,” said Yang. “It’s  _ Coco’s  _ birthday, so she’s...buying you clothes? That…” She laughed. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

Velvet shrugged, brushing her hair out of her face and avoiding eye contact. “Well, you know. It’s fun.”

“Silence from the peanut gallery,” Coco muttered absently, running a professional eye over the clothing’s fit. “The artist is working.”

“Wow,” said Yang.

Coco ignored her, opening the top few buttons on Velvet’s blouse, adjusting the length of the braces, straightening her collar.

“Right,” she decided. “Do you like this one?”

Velvet, despite looking faintly pink from the attention, nodded. Coco gave a rakish grin and ruffled her hair.

“We’re keeping it, then. Alright, next one. Move out, chop chop, let’s go!”

“You’re the soul of romance, Coco,” Yang grinned as she sat down on the hard plastic bench across from her.

Coco shrugged and shook out her magazine again, leafing through until she found the miniaturization editorial she’d been looking at earlier.

“Already planning a date night?”

At that, Coco smirked. She didn’t respond, just licked one finger to turn the page of her magazine. It might have been a totally innocent gesture, if it weren’t for the salacious wink she threw over the top of her shades.

“Coco,” Velvet complained from the dressing room.

“I said nothing.”

There was a long-suffering sigh; then, more hesitantly, “Coco, are you  _ sure  _ about this?”

Coco didn’t even look up. “Every woman needs a good leather jacket, Velvet.”

“Hell yeah,” Yang agreed. “Okay, this I’ve  _ gotta  _ see.”

“Give her time,” Coco said calmly.

She’d just turned back to looking over an infographic comparing the virtues and shortcomings of various super-lightweight materials when Velvet gave a small yelp.

“You okay in there?”

“Coco!” she exclaimed. “Did you  _ look  _ at the price tag on this?!”

Coco’s grin softened, whether Velvet could see it or not. It wasn’t like Coco herself had money to burn; people seemed convinced that she was Weiss Schnee 2.0, some sort of heiress, which she was fine with letting them believe—but honestly she was just really good at budgeting, had a great eye, and made excellent use of secondhand and outlet stores. But Velvet, with a family as stereotypically large as one might expect from a rural rabbit Faunus, had always been extremely uncomfortable with any kind of large sum being spent on her at once.

“It’s on clearance,” Coco said soothingly. “Come on, it’s me. Everything according to plan. This is all within budget, kid.”

Velvet’s voice still sounded uncertain, but after a moment she called back something appropriately mollified.

Yang leaned forward, pitching her voice low. “Is it actually on clearance, or…?”

Coco looked over at her and raised a pointed eyebrow, unimpressed.

“Do  _ you  _ often lie to your girlfriend to get her to cooperate?” she asked coolly.

Yang had the grace to wince. “Ouch. Okay, point taken.”

“I hope so.” Coco pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose, then relented a bit. Yang wasn’t a bad kid, and she looked guilty now. “There’s a tear on the right shoulder,” she explained. “But I’m patching it with her emblem anyway.” She’d agreed to  _ that  _ much customization, at least.

“Nice!” She could say this much for Yang; the girl bounced back like nobody’s business. “You know, I know a  _ great  _ decal place. Patches, iron-ons, belt buckles, you name it. A little bit pricey, but totally worth it. Me and Ruby go there  _ all  _ the time.”

“Sigil Spam,” Coco guessed. “Twenty-third and cypress, ten percent off with a Beacon or Signal student ID, very modest design-consultation fees.” Yang pointed at her victoriously, and she winked over the top of her shades. “I got Velvet a gift card there our first year. A Huntress of her caliber needs an emblem.”

Yang grinned. “Yeah.” She cocked her head a bit, messy blonde hair spilling over her shoulder, and observed, “You take good care of her, you know that?”

“That’s my job,” Coco said quietly.

After a moment, there was a knock from the changing room door.

“All right,” Velvet called, sounding less hesitant and more bewildered. “I...think I’m ready?”

Coco sat up and set her magazine aside, straightening her sleeves for something to do. Coco Adel did not get caught off-balance by overly-upbeat first-years. “All right, Velvet, let’s see it.” Velvet muttered something in the affirmative and Coco smiled as she came out. “I’m sure you look— _ oh.” _

_ “Wow.” _

“That’s...yes,” Coco agreed, swallowing with difficulty. Considering Velvet’s combat gear she really shouldn’t have this reaction to her girlfriend wearing considerably  _ more  _ clothes than usual, but... _ everyone _ looked good in dark chocolate combat boots, the sand-colored camo had been a fantastic choice in fatigues, and pair that with worn brown leather and the messy ponytail she’d pulled her hair into…

Yang’s voice was faint. “Who are you and what have you done with Velvet Scarlatina?”

Velvet, predictably, blushed.

“That is  _ so  _ close to perfect,” Coco decided. She stepped in only for a moment to fix the way the jacket hung, better emphasizing Velvet’s shoulders. She experimented with folding the collar down, then decided that the high, popped look suited her better. It’d probably give Velvet a sense of security, too; she always liked to feel hidden.

“Can you zip it up comfortably?” she asked. Velvet nodded. “Right, we’re keeping this. Unless you don’t like it,” she remembered to add at the last minute.

Velvet’s hunched shoulders and closed body language worried her for a moment, until she looked up and grinned.

“I do, actually,” she admitted, and Yang laughed and applauded.

“All right!” she exclaimed. “Go Velvet!"

“What did I say about the peanut gallery?” Coco demanded.

Yang ignored her. “We’ve gotta get you some shades like Coco’s! Complete the look!”

Coco smiled and ran a thumb along one of Velvet’s silky ears. “What,” she said lightly. “Hide those eyes? I don’t think so.” Velvet turned red again and hid her face in Coco’s chest, which prompted a soft laugh and a tight hug. “Easy, there, cottontail. That was the last one, right?”

Velvet, apparently in no rush to pull herself away from Coco’s collarbone, hummed and nodded.

Coco scratched her behind the ears. “Good. So we’ve got this one and the other, and the one from earlier...don’t get your clothes on just yet, okay? Grab me that pile of things that were the wrong size, we’ll run through those again with better sizes and then we can leave.”

Velvet finally looked up, an uncharacteristically teasing look on her face. “Promise?”

“Hey,” Coco said mildly, and Velvet giggled. “All right, all right. Shoo.” Velvet bounced up to kiss her cheek and then ducked back into her stall, emerging with two small discard piles.

“Too small,” she explained, holding up one pile, and “too big” for the other.

“Be back in five,” Coco promised.

Yang pushed herself onto her feet with a stretch, gesturing toward the “too big” pile. “Need a hand? I can grab a size smaller for those.” Coco willingly handed them over as they slipped back among the racks, and it was only a moment before Yang, again, spoke up. “Oh, hey! Think Velvet might like trying out a combat skirt?”

_ Absolutely no combat skirts, _ was Coco’s instinctive reaction; but, well, just because  _ she  _ hated them…

“You know what?” she said. “When we’re done here, you can pick out  _ one.” _ Yang pumped the air, and she hastily added,  _ “Make it classy!” _

Yang waved her hand in a vague affirmative and continued hunting through clearance racks for something more in Velvet’s size.

Behind them, there was a derisive sniff.

Coco barely spared a glance in its direction; it was reflex more than anything, turning toward the noise. As she should perhaps have expected, it was an older woman with a pinched face, poking through sale displays like the rest of them and looking deeply disapproving of everything. Whatever. She turned back to her search for slightly larger sweaters.

“Shameful,” the woman said, just loud enough that Coco couldn’t help but hear. “Simply shameful.”

Yang shot her a confused look, mouthing  _ What’s this lady’s problem?  _ Coco rolled her eyes, realized Yang wasn’t on her team and thus probably wouldn’t be able to tell, shrugged with vague amusement and went back to searching. There was nobody around for the woman to be talking to; she seemed to be mostly commenting on improper re-hanging of clearance items. Hey, if that was the hill she chose to die on…

“Political correctness gone mad,” the woman commented to thin air. “Forcing businesses to tolerate people bringing  _ animals  _ into clean stores.”

Coco went very still. Then, holding herself carefully in check, she glanced at the tag on a fleece jacket and began searching its siblings for a size seven-and-a-half.

“This young generation needs to learn courtesy,” the woman continued, voice pitched exactly loud enough to make it obvious she intended to be overheard. “No respect for honest people who don’t want to be subjected to some freak fetish in public. No common decency.”

_ There’s a lot of that going around,  _ Coco thought, determinedly ignoring her heckler. She had to give a wry smile at the thought that followed. _ Silence from the peanut gallery, please… _

“Bad parenting is what it is.  _ My  _ son knows I would die of shame if he were to take up with thieves and filthy scroungers. Not to mention all the work it heaps on the poor employees, having to disinfect their stock after some feral pet has been at it—”

It was a good thing Yang was as emotional as she was. Coco saw her patience snapping a mile away, and the moment the blonde whirled she reached out, grabbed a fistful of jacket, and yanked her back around. She’d barely gotten a chance to open her mouth, and her furious rebuttal died in her throat as Coco hissed  _ “Leave it.” _

Yang looked at her incredulously, eyes burning scarlet. “You can’t be serious!”

“Leave it,” Coco repeated, voice grim. “It isn’t going to help.”

“It’d help  _ me.” _

"This isn't about you."

Yang glared at her and demanded in an undertone, “You  _ let  _ people talk about Velvet like that?”

Coco took a deep breath, reminded herself that Team RWBY knew Velvet only as a sweet schoolmate they’d spoken to maybe half a dozen times, and let it out again before adjusting her glasses.

“Velvet is why we’re not taking the bait. She hates confrontation, and she hates public scenes. Start something over this and she’ll be upset for a week.” Seeing Yang still unconvinced, Coco sighed and muttered, “She made us all promise freshman year. Huntresses can’t just start fights with civilians we don’t like.”

Yang’s breath was still coming hard and fast, but she squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them they were violet again.

“Fine,” she growled through her teeth. “But only because Velvet’s here.”

There was an imperious clicking as the woman behind them loudly adjusted clothes hangers.

“Some things,” she announced in Coco’s general direction, “are just impossible to justify. Even animals only, ahem,  _ mate  _ within their species.”

Coco flexed her fingers slowly.

“Believe me,” she told Yang. “I know the feeling.”

* * *

It took a few seconds for Velvet to realize what was going on.

She knew Coco worried about all the time she spent by herself, but honestly Coco overestimated the level of true anti-Faunus sentiment at Beacon. Even petty bullies like Cardin Winchester rarely had any real, dark hatred; they just weren’t creative enough to push anything but the most obvious buttons. She was shy and quiet and uncomfortable in public; if she wasn’t a Faunus, they’d just find something else to pick on her for.

And even CRDL’s attacks had tapered off after the first month or so of the semester. Yatsu thought maybe now that they’d settled in they’d realized the rest of the school wasn’t impressed with their bigotry; Velvet watched the wary, almost-respectful looks Cardin shot toward JNPR, remembered that their leader had been his favorite victim, and suspected Pyrrha had probably stepped in to put a stop to it. Or maybe Glynda. There just wasn’t a real bullying problem at Beacon. Too many Hunters-in-training were born protectors for her to have anything serious to worry about.

So, when her introductory Dust-mixing seminar let out an hour before the weapons workshop the rest of her team had at the same time, she didn’t feel any need to hole up in her room and hide until Coco or Fox or Yatsu showed up to protect her. She didn’t need an  _ escort  _ to take her books and sit in the shade outside the library to study. This was her home.

Her first reaction to the nearby group of fourth-years, then, was not to respond defensively.

They were four males; probably a team, though she wasn’t familiar with every team at Beacon and couldn’t have guessed their name. They’d been laughing and snickering and elbowing each other for a while, but it was a public area, and Velvet didn’t mind.

“Hey,” one of them eventually said. “Hey, over here.” He gave a short whistle; Velvet’s ear twitched toward the sound and the sudden laughter, but she didn’t think anything of it. Presumably, they were meeting friends.

“Yo,” another one added. “Ears!”

Blinking with surprise, Velvet looked up. “Oh! Sorry. Was there something…?”

One of the students elbowed his friend, who shoved him. “Get off, man! Hey there, honeybun. Why don’t you come over here, huh?”

Velvet made an apologetic face. “I’m studying, actually. Maybe...some other time, I guess?”

All four made disappointed noises. “I don’t think she likes us,” said the first one, the one who’d called her “Ears”. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? We don’t bite.”

“Not on the first date,” his friend grinned, to general laughter.

Velvet shifted uncomfortably. Coco would have know what to say; she always gave better than she got. Velvet wasn’t like her. She just let her hair fall between them like a curtain and ducked her head, hoping if she ignored them they’d get bored and go away.

“Aww.” She thought that one was their leader. He had brown eyes, not that different from Coco’s actually, but...Coco  _ never  _ looked at her the way he was, and Velvet was glad of that. It made her feel...she didn’t  _ like  _ it. “Look at her! She’s all shy now.” 

His friend gave a five-tone whistle like he was calling a dog. “Come on, honeybun, don’t be like that. Hey, tell you what. Come on over with us, I’ll, uh, give you a carrot.”

Velvet squeezed her eyes shut and tried to will her ears not to turn red. If she’d had any doubts, his tone of voice and the way the others started howling made it clear she hadn’t imagined the innuendo.

Sometimes letting people know she was taken, so to speak, was enough to make them go away. But her and Coco...it wasn’t a secret but it was private, that was special and personal and  _ hers. _ She didn’t  _ want  _ to give it to these people. This wasn’t flirting that she could turn down, they’d just use it as a weapon and…

She closed her notes and felt blindly for her bag. She didn’t have to listen to this. She’d go to the library where there were witnesses.

Because witnesses had always helped before, right?

“Hey, don’t leave!”

“You scared her off!” It could have been an admonishment if the third teammate wasn’t grinning. 

Velvet had just barely managed to pack everything up when she realized they’d left the picnic table they’d been lounging on and surrounded her. One reached out and snagged her bookbag, tossing it along the low stone wall she was sitting on and moving between it and Velvet. He leaned casually against the wall, grinning down at her.

“Aw, c’mon, bun.” Yes, that one was definitely the leader. “We’re just trying to get to know you!”

“I’d like to leave,” she said. It was supposed to sound firm, and came out an anxious mumble.

“See? She doesn’t like you. Hey. Ears.” One of them reached out and flicked her ear, and the others laughed as it twitched away reflexively. “Is it true what they say about Faunus girls?”

“No,” she said reflexively. Then “Probably not? I need to go.”

“Don’t be  _ racist, _ Aur,” one of the others said, like it was a joke. “I told you, the mating season thing’s just a myth.” He smirked. “Faunus girls are on  _ all  _ the time.”

“And she’s a rabbit, too, you know what that means.”

Velvet bit her tongue. There was no point in arguing, there was no point in yelling, there were four of them and they were bigger than her and like an idiot she’d left her weapon in her locker. Coco had the right idea, she should wear it everywhere. She couldn’t even stand up now, even though she knew she was giving them an advantage by letting them tower over her, because that would mean getting uncomfortably close and they might take  _ that  _ as an invitation…

“Hey, don’t be embarrassed, honey,” said Number Two, widening his stance cockily. “Nothing to be ashamed of. I like a girl who’s not afraid to admit what she wants, right, bun?”

And then he reached out and ruffled her hair between her ears, exactly the way Coco always did, and Velvet couldn’t stand it. She  _ loved  _ it when Coco did that, it was gentle and affectionate and her partner did it to make her smile, he wasn’t  _ allowed— _

She didn’t want to cry, she refused to cry in front of these people, she couldn’t, but it was too familiar and too wrong and she was a talented fighter but in close quarters, unarmed and outnumbered when they were all built like brawlers, it could get ugly fast and anyway she didn’t want to fight she just wanted to  _ leave _ …

_ Crack. _

“Afternoon.”

Velvet hadn’t looked up at the ominous noise of stone breaking; she’d curled into a ball and was planning to stay there until everything stopped. But that voice made her eyes fly open, and when she looked up she realized the fourth-years had all taken a step away from her.

Coco was leaning against her briefcase, which was angled visibly toward the group; the stone wall under it was suddenly riddled with spiderweb cracks, and her voice was colder than Velvet had ever heard it. It almost scared  _ her, _ but the sheer relief of seeing her overpowered that. It made her feel dizzy. Actually, she kind of wanted to throw up.

“Hey.” Velvet’s panic subsided further when she realized how nervous they all suddenly looked. “We’re just being friendly, here…”

“Velvet.” Coco jerked her head, and Velvet took the opportunity to scramble through the gap she’d created, tucking herself behind her leader.

_ Like a scared rabbit going to ground. _ Except Coco had said things like this were different, and Velvet trusted her judgement enough to take her word on that. Besides, everyone clearing the area and sliding into position behind the minigun was a CFVY combat staple.  _ Nothing to be ashamed of. _

This was different from Grimm. Grimm, she could handle. She didn’t know how to respond to something like this, and she was pathetically grateful that Coco was there.

Most of the fourth-years were backing away now, but the leader didn’t seem willing to back down from a second-year with a handbag.

“You know,” he said, taking a step forward. “We were having a  _ conversation  _ here, maybe if you weren’t such a—”

Coco didn’t even blink. Well, she might have, actually, but with her shades you couldn’t tell. She certainly didn’t flinch. All she did was twitch one finger. The one resting casually on the release trigger for her gatling gun.

Instantly, every single one of Velvet’s tormentors froze dead in their tracks.

She couldn’t help herself. Pressed up against Coco’s back, Velvet gave a tiny grin.

Coco was less amused.

“Go ahead,” she said. “Mine’s bigger.”

There was a moment of silence. Not far away, classes were letting out and students passed by apparently unaware of anything out of the ordinary. 

“Screw this,” he announced, in a much higher-pitched voice than he’d been using. “She’s not worth it!”

Coco didn’t move until she heard the door into the school close behind them. Then, finally, she turned and brushed Velvet’s hair back, cold fury melting into concern as quickly as transforming her weapon. “Hey. Velvet? You all right, kid?”

Velvet couldn’t help it. She didn’t even bother putting her arms around her; she just flung herself forward into Coco’s chest and hid against her collarbone.

“Easy.” Coco’s arms came up to hold her close. “Easy, Velvet.”

“I’m fine,” she whispered, clinging to Coco’s shirt.

“Yeah.” There was no bite to her sarcasm, not now. “I can tell. Did they hurt you?”

“I wouldn’t let them hurt me,” Velvet said reflexively, pressing closer to Coco’s solid warmth. She was fine, really, she just…

Coco’s grip on her tightened, and her voice was hard again when she said “You didn’t  _ let  _ them do anything. Don’t worry, kid. I’ll take care of this.”

Anxiety twisted in Velvet’s gut. “Don’t,” she whispered.  _ Taking care of it  _ meant she’d go to Glynda or Ozpin, and eventually the reason would get out. If they were just punished the next time would be worse, and even if they were expelled it would mean having to answer questions and recount the incident, and it always sounded petty and unimportant after the fact. Nothing would ever come of it.

“I...oh, damn.” Coco reached down and took Velvet’s hand. “Velvet, you’re  _ shaking.” _

Velvet wiped at her eyes. With everything over, she was mostly irritated with herself for crying. The whole thing should just have annoyed her, it’s not like anyone was going to actually hurt her in the middle of campus in broad daylight! This was why it wasn’t worth pursuing. She was fine, she was a Huntress. She just wanted to move on and forget the whole thing.   


“It’s just adrenaline,” she muttered.

Coco looked at her for a long minute. Then, finally, she sighed and took her glasses off. Before Velvet could brace for a compassionate lecture about trust and communication, Coco had gently tilted her chin up and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

“Just adrenaline?” she asked.

Velvet couldn’t lie to her when Coco was looking her in the eyes. So, instead, she surged forward again and hugged her. Coco held her immediately, one hand coming up to stroke Velvet’s hair.

“All right,” she said softly, breath ghosting over Velvet’s ear. “All right, kid.”

* * *

Velvet always tried to put a positive spin on things.

Like this, she thought as she ducked under Yatsuhashi’s arm to avoid being hit in the head by furious swats of a broom. At least the manager hadn’t  _ actually  _ pulled out a fire hose the way he’d threatened to!

It...well, actually, it didn’t really make any more sense in context, but sometimes that was what life as a Huntress was all about. This was Coco’s fault.

It had started with an early-morning workout and training session that she hadn’t even had the decency to warn them about the night before. Velvet had been halfway through the fast-paced push-up regimen before her brain woke up enough to even start yawning. And then they’d wrecked one of the smaller training rooms doing one-on-one, doubles, and 1v3 gang-up routines until Glynda knocked on the door, politely informed them that they’d missed breakfast, and even more politely suggested that they leave and let her set up the room so someone else might eventually be able to use it someday.

Not that they could resent Coco for any of that, Velvet thought. She was a good leader, and she’d been just as tired as the rest of them but it hadn’t stopped her from being wry and energetic and pushing herself even harder than the others. She’d released them all to hit the showers—which Velvet, who normally hated getting wet, had never been happier to see—with an honest, proud grin and a “Nice work, team.” And then she’d decided they deserved the rest of the day off, and offered to take them out for an early lunch in Vale. 

Velvet knew when she was being bribed, but the bribe was  _ pizza. _ She was not too proud to accept bribes of free pizza.

It was just that Coco’s favorite pizza place happened to be attached to an arcade, and there happened to be two birthday parties and an elementary-school field trip that day, which meant there was a very long wait. None of them minded, but Fox and Coco got bored easily and the entire team’s blood was up after the morning’s exertion. And, well, one thing led to another while they stood around waiting, and Fox started making innuendos, and Coco smirked and gave as good as she got, and then they somehow got into a game of flirtatious chicken, except this was  _ Coco  _ and she never backed down, and—

Yatsu had exchanged a look with Velvet and said “Here we go,” and she’d put her face in her hands. And that was how the CF of CFVY ended up making out against an arcade game, Coco practically draped over a kiddie slot machine with the word PROSPECTOR JACKPOT in giant flashing letters on top of it and a lot of aggressively cheerful mining art all over the machine.

Even  _ then  _ they probably wouldn’t have gotten kicked out except that Coco braced one foot against the machine to get a better angle while fisting her hands in Fox’s hair, and the heel of her boot somehow got caught in the coin-return mechanism. And Coco was  _ really  _ strong, and her gear was designed to survive encounters with Grimm, so when she jerked her leg to free it she kind of tore off the door and sent hundreds of little gold tokens scattering across the floor to the cheers of surrounding children who swarmed it like a mob and…

“And _ stay out!” _

Velvet dodged a flying cup of what she  _ really  _ hoped was lemonade.

She couldn’t blame him.

But she didn’t feel as guilty as she probably should have, either. It wasn’t like they’d done any serious harm, after all. Besides, seeing a grumpy old man swatting Yatsu with a broom was just  _ funny. _

“I’m glad you’re enjoying this, Velvet,” Yatsu griped as he shook dust bunches off his clothes.

Velvet managed to stop giggling long enough to squeeze his shoulder in a manner she hoped was comforting. “Oh, are you okay Yatsu?”

Coco, who was grinning entirely too widely for someone who’d just gotten them threatened with a fire hose, chased with cleaning equipment and slapped with a lifetime ban to an arcade of all places, snorted. “He’s fine.”

“I hate you,” Yatsu informed her calmly.

“Don’t hate me ‘cause you’re single,” Coco tossed back, casually brushing invisible dust off her sleeve.

“That is not why I hate you.”

Coco grinned and jerked her head toward her partner. “Hey, blame Fox. I didn’t push  _ myself  _ against that thing.”

Velvet shook her head fondly. “Nobody is blaming Fox, Coco.”

“Sexist double standard,” she decided, though the wide grin and the hint of a wink—CFVY’d gotten really good at reading Coco’s body language in the time they’d spent together—said she was just teasing. She did that a lot.

It was kind of nice. Velvet liked being taken care of, and she liked feeling special; she didn’t get that much at home, with so many younger siblings who needed more attention. But she wasn’t made of glass, and she liked just feeling  _ normal, _ which Coco gave her better than anyone.

One of many things to love about her. Velvet smiled and ducked her head to hide her slight blush. Coco was just...she was Coco.

Apparently she hadn’t hid it well enough, because after a few seconds she felt the familiar blend of gloved and bare fingers gently massaging the base of her ear alongside the pressure of Coco’s arm around her shoulders.

“Fine,” Coco relented, squeezing Velvet gently. “Scratch pizza. Yatsu! You like subs?”

Yatsu sighed, lifted his eyes to the heavens, and finally admitted that he did.

The Sand Witches™ was a Vacuo-based chain, though in Velvet’s opinion you couldn’t really tell that from the menu; the only indication of its origin was cartoon images of tumbleweeds and a few famous rock formations in the corners of the menus. Still, their subs were good, and there was no end of fantastic vegetarian options.

What? Not  _ every  _ rabbit stereotype was a myth.

The line at the Witches was still decently long—it was a popular shop and it was almost noon by now—but less so than the arcade had been, and they settled in easily. Coco kissed Velvet’s head before leaning against a railing, and then she pushed her glasses further up her nose and sat back to watch the boys mess with each other. There was only a little roughhousing; enough to make Velvet take a step back and laugh, but not enough to disturb anyone, and the clerk grinned at Fox when it was their turn to place their orders.

This had been a good day, Velvet decided happily as she stepped back to let Coco order before her; Coco looked like she was about to insist, and she quickly explained, “I’m still deciding.”

It wasn’t hard, though. By the time Coco finished and Yatsuhashi was picking out his cheese, Velvet had decided on what she wanted, and waved to the clerk as he came back to her end of the counter.

“Hi!” She said. “Um. Could I get a standard veggie sub on—”

The clerk didn’t notice her, waving the man behind her forward. “Sir, I can take who’s next.”

“I...Oh. That was actually...no, go ahead,” Velvet stammered. The man’s order was simple anyway, and when he’d moved around her she tried again. This time her wave was a little more nervous, getting closer to the counter. “Hi! Sorry. I have a quiet voice. Could I get wheat bread, please—”

“Next,” the clerk called over her head.

This time it was a party of three, and Velvet could feel her cheeks burning as her team waited for her by the register.

“Excuse me?” she tried again once they’d moved on. “Hello, I’m actually next—”

Once again, the clerk ignored her, and this time no amount of benefit of the doubt could hide the fact that he was doing it on purpose.

Coco, if the look on her face was any indication, had figured that out a long time ago. Velvet shot her a pleading look and shook her head, and she could  _ see  _ her leader counting to ten in her head before giving a deceptively cheerful taxicab whistle.

“Hey,” she called, voice mild but pitched to carry over the chaos of a battlefield or a noisy sub shop alike. The clerk couldn’t help glancing over. Coco lowered her shades enough to make eye contact, and looked pointedly at Velvet.

“Looks like you forgot someone,” Yatsu added. He wasn’t as good at hiding his anger as Coco was, but he was trying, and Velvet appreciated that.

She knew plenty of Faunus would look down on her for not fighting this. But she was...maybe it really was genetic, maybe she was just a prey creature, but she didn’t like shouting. She hated it, she  _ hated  _ people yelling, and she hated everyone looking at her, it was so much worse than just ignoring it and moving on.

Belatedly, she realized that her ears were more obvious than ever here, because in the most popular sandwich chain in Remnant, during the lunch rush, she was the only Faunus in the room.

And the clerk didn’t even bother making an excuse. He just pretended Coco and Yatsu hadn’t spoken, and waved the next human in line forward.

She could see Coco’s patience starting to fray. If it had been any situation but this one, she would already be verbally tearing him to pieces. But it was...this,  _ again, _ and for Velvet’s sake she was trying.

“Sorry,” she said loudly. And that was her battlefield voice again, the one that made every human in the shop reflexively stand up straight and listen. She made no effort to lower her voice as she braced both hands on the counter and continued, “Clue me in. Are you refusing to serve my teammate because she’s a Faunus?”

Velvet wanted to shrink to the size of a real rabbit and hide in a hole for the next year, but there was nowhere to go except past the lines of humans who weren’t saying a word in her defense. The clerk somehow managed to act like he hadn’t heard, and Velvet realized only when she bumped into him that she’d been backing toward Yatsuhashi’s comforting bulk ever since she figured out what was happening.

“Coco,” she mumbled, “Let it go, it’s fine…”

Yatsu answered in a low growl, “It is not.”

_ “Please,” _ she insisted, digging in her heels and trying to push Yatsu back as subtly as possible. “Just...let’s just  _ leave, _ Coco, I’ll eat back at school…”

Coco was still gripping the counter with both hands. She hung her head for a long moment; even from behind, even with those iconic sunglasses, Velvet could tell she was squeezing her eyes shut.

“Velvet,” she said finally. She wasn’t projecting anymore; her voice was quiet, and soft, and Velvet’s breath caught at how broken it sounded. “You risk your  _ life  _ for these people.”

* * *

“You have got to be  _ kidding  _ me.”

Coco’s nails were tapping a tattoo on the handle of her briefcase, but she was almost too exasperated to be fully angry.

Almost.

The Vale shuttleport guard held his hands up placatingly. “Miss,” he said. “It’s a randomized procedure—”

“Like hell it is!” She was careful to only throw the hand in the air that wasn’t holding a concentrated gatling gun. Sending airport security to the hospital with a cracked skull wouldn’t do anything to improve the situation, however satisfying it would be. “This is the third time in a row. What exactly do you think she’s hiding?”

“Coco, it’s fine.” Velvet was stiff and unhappy, shoulders hunched and hugging herself with one arm as two more security workers ran scanners along her. But at least she mostly looked resigned, not scared. “Go on ahead.”

“We really do need you to clear the area, miss…” The guard took one look at Coco’s expression, Fox’s muscles rippling as he rolled his shoulders, and Yatsuhashi’s...presence...and sighed. “You’re holding up traffic.”

“You’re holding up my girlfriend,” Coco responded flatly. Personally, she would love to create a traffic jam over this—once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is government security not even  _ trying  _ to be subtle anymore—but in the interest of being left alone, she snapped her fingers and signalled Yatsu to move, clearing more of the path.

Their handler seemed to accept that it was the best he would get, sighed again, and went back to doing his job.

“Hey!”

Coco’s head snapped to the left, frowning as the security worker—only her inner Velvet kept her from thinking “goon”—poking through Velvet’s backpack straightened up. He waved his supervisor over calmly enough, but she didn’t miss the way his other hand drifted to rest on his shock baton.

Judging by his sudden stillness, the way he subtly shifted his center of gravity, neither did Fox.

The supervisor hummed, turning to face Velvet, who had just finished being scanned and by rights should have been waved along at this point.

“All right, miss,” she said. Her tone made Coco’s fingers twitch on her case’s release mechanism. “Care to tell me what a young lady like yourself is doing with three dozen highly volatile military-grade Dust vials?”

Velvet blinked, taking a wary half-step back. “I’m, I’m a  _ huntress,” _ she said slowly. “What do you mean? I’m a student at Beacon.”

“Can you prove that?”

Yatsu threw his hands in the air as Coco hissed. It was much more impressive when he did it; several of the guards took a step back.

“You scanned her scroll five minutes ago!” he exclaimed.

“Sir, kindly restrain yourself or we will be forced to ask you to leave. Show me your ID, please, miss.”

Velvet handed it over, a telltale flush starting to creep up her neck. People were staring at her again, and Coco ground her teeth.

She’d seen this girl roundhouse-kick a giant Nevermore in the face in the middle of a village square and cheerfully wave to the onlookers. Velvet knew her worth. It  _ burned, _ watching some human bully with a badge casually strip that cheer and confidence away from her.

The woman took entirely too long verifying Velvet’s credentials, which had already been verified at the door.

“How did you acquire those vials, miss...Scarlatina?”

“We were shopping.” Velvet’s voice was shaky, but her eyes were starting to get a glint of steel in them. “They’re from different stores. The receipts are packed with the vials.”

“No crystals?”

“My weapon only uses one crystal. I stocked up last month.”

“Are you aware of the recent Dust robberies in the area?”

Velvet glanced around, looking for a way out or at least some support, which made it obvious that she was avoiding making eye contact with her team. “I..of course. Everyone knows about the Dust robberies.”

_ “Everyone? _ In what circles?”

Velvet’s hands balled into fists at the implication. “I’m a combat mage, ma’am. I  _ told  _ you, the receipts are packed with the vials. Can I  _ please  _ go?”

_ Easy, kid. _ Coco didn’t like the tension in the nearby guard’s stance.  _ Don’t give her what she wants. _

“I haven’t accused you of anything, Miss Scarlatina. If you continue being belligerent, I’ll have to have you detained.”

_ Belligerent. _ That was a new one.

“Just once,” Fox breathed in Coco’s ear. “Let me hit her  _ once.” _

Coco didn’t respond. Velvet didn’t either.

“Are all of these vials for you?”

Coco was careful not to react to that. The honest answer was no; twelve of them were  _ hers, _ an experiment with modding the minigun sustainably. Custom bullets were a waste of money at four thousand rounds a minute, but powered Dust in miniscule amounts might be able to give her some flexibility.

_ Velvet, _ she thought desperately,  _ please don’t say there wasn’t room in your girlfriend’s purse next to the gatling gun. _

“For me and my team leader,” Velvet answered, just defiant enough to slip under the radar. “Professor Ozpin authorized us to come into Vale to pick them up. They’re non-standard mixes.”

Oh,  _ clever girl. _ None of it was a lie; Ozpin had “authorized” at-will field trips outside school hours for any Beacon student by virtue of putting it in the Beacon handbook, and technically anything but pure elemental Dust was considered a mix among professionals. But it sounded impressive enough.

And it did the trick. The woman snapped Velvet’s scroll closed. Apparently, she wasn’t desperate enough to risk bringing Ozpin or Glynda into this by trying to run in a registered Huntress with a legal paper trail for Dust trafficking.

“Very well,” she said with ill grace, tossing the scroll onto the metal table next to Velvet’s bag. “Vale Security appreciates your cooperation.” And then, because of course she couldn’t even try to be professional, she added icily, “Was that so hard?”

Velvet glared at the floor as she scrambled to get everything back in her bag, but didn’t answer.

Yatsu slipped into place between Velvet and the security forces as she finally joined them, reaching out and holding his partner close against his side. Coco casually flipped the briefcase in her hand so that it would open backwards in the event it was needed, taking up a position as rearguard.

Fox didn’t move, shoulders low and loose as he stayed balanced on the balls of his feet, staring daggers at the trigger-happy guard with the shock baton.

Coco paused and glanced between them. She’d known from the moment Fox first reacted to the silent threat that  _ her  _ intervention wouldn’t be needed; if anyone had laid a hand on their teammate, all hell would have broken loose before she had a chance to trigger the release lever. And Velvet was out of the line of fire, now. She wasn’t  _ remotely  _ sure she’d rein Fox in if he decided to cause a little pain.

Nothing to worry about, as it happened. Fox stayed still and looming for as long as it took for the guard to notice him, freeze, and realize he’d been intimidated. Then Coco’s boy moved slowly away, fell in next to her, and finally dropped eye contact.

“Kid?” Coco asked as they finally moved toward the private Beacon terminal. “Velvet, you all right?”

Velvet looked over her shoulder; Yatsuhashi relaxed his tight hug enough to let her, but kept a comforting hand on her back. She gave a brave, shaky smile, but it didn’t last. As it slipped off her face, she just shrugged and leaned into Yatsu.

“Sometimes it happens,” she murmured. “Thanks for staying.”

* * *

Thirty-one hours and counting.

CFVY had a comfortable place in the Vytal Festival tournament bracket; not too close to the front, with plenty of time to familiarize themselves with this year’s hazards and do research on their opponents’ fighting styles, but early enough that they would still be eager and focused, without having lost the energy of the opening bouts.

Velvet was still nervous. Excited, but nervous. A good kind of nervous, the eager and forward-thinking kind, just...well. Still kind of nervous. She just wanted to do right by her team, that’s all. The spectators didn’t really factor in. Fighting was something she was good at. She hoped they  _ would  _ be watching her. On the battlefield, she had nothing to be insecure about.

Maybe somewhere another little rabbit Faunus from a poor outkingdom settlement would see her with her team and take a little more pride in their ears.

“Velvet.” Coco, of course, had never been calmer. She sat backwards on the bench, glasses in place, elbows resting on the table, and her lips twitched as she looked over. “I think you’ve got enough.”

Velvet blinked and looked down at her waffles, which had disappeared beneath a pile of whipped cream she’d forgotten she was spraying onto it. She blushed.

Coco gave a crooked smile and shook her head. Raising her voice, she called, “Nora!” 

Before Velvet even had time to figure out where JNPR was, her over-sweetened waffles had disappeared.

Coco swung her legs over the bench and turned the right way around, sliding her own waffles in Velvet’s direction. She always preferred a lighter breakfast, but Velvet still put up a weak protest out of principle.

“Are you sure…?”

Coco squeezed her shoulder and used her fork to flick a strawberry onto Velvet’s plate from the fruit bowl on the table.

“Go ahead, kid.”

Velvet put only a very small amount of whipped cream on her waffles this time, and was about to dig in when a sudden, awful shrieking sound made her cringe.

She felt a hand on her shoulder immediately, and shook her head to clear the ringing to find Coco looking at her, concerned.

“Velvet?” That was Yatsu, sitting across from her. “What’s wrong?”

She blinked. “You didn’t hear that—ow!”

There it was again, a high-pitched sound that went through her skull like a railway spike.

Coco shook her head. “We can’t hear anything. Must be too high a frequency. Maybe the intercom’s malfunctioning?”

Velvet sighed. Of course it was a nonhuman frequency. “Maybe,” she allowed, taking a bite of waffle. A few seconds later, it happened again. Coco winced in sympathy.

“Sorry, kid,” she said. “We’ll talk to Glynda about it when we see her.”

“Not the intercom.”

Fox’s tone of voice made Velvet’s ears twitch, even as she grabbed the bases in case the noise happened again. Coco’s head snapped around, and he nodded across the room.

It took a moment for Velvet to realize what he was looking at. The Shade, Atlas and Haven visitors were mixed in with the Beacon students, but there was one knot of Atlas uniforms almost directly across from them in the next aisle. They weren’t doing anything suspicious, just trying not to smile, occasionally leaning forward to look at another Atlas student further down the line.

A white wolf Faunus, judging by the ears. Unlike most of the others, he was eating alone.

Velvet reevaluated her opinion of the first group’s behavior.

One of the group, a dark-haired young man who looked maybe a little older than them, raised a piece of metal to his mouth and—

“Owwww!”

Velvet cringed and clutched her ears, and the Faunus boy dropped his juice, spilling it across the table as he grabbed at his own. A  _ badly-tuned _ dog whistle, on top of everything else.

Coco gave a quiet hum.

“Fox,” she announced evenly, turning away from the spectacle. He looked over; they exchanged a long look before she gave an almost imperceptible twitch of the head, breaking eye contact and picking up her coffee. “This could use some creamer, if you don’t mind.”

“On it.” He pushed himself to his feet and walked off, and Velvet huddled closer against her team leader, watching for that awful whistle again.

Yatsu gave an exasperated sigh; actually, he looked genuinely irritated at Coco for ignoring the situation, while Velvet was mostly grateful that she was trying to distract her from the noise. 

“You know,” he said curtly. “You could get your own coffee creamer.”

“Nonsense,” Coco said idly, emptying a sugar packet into her coffee. She picked up a spoon and stirred it carefully. “I have people for that.”

Velvet didn’t let go of her ears, but she was confused enough to frown and tilt her head. “Coco?” she asked. “Are you...feeling okay?”

“Of course,” Coco responded calmly. She tapped the spoon on the side of her mug and set it aside. “What makes you ask that, Velvet?”

Velvet was mystified. “You  _ never  _ put cream and sugar in your—”

Three things happened very quickly.

First, Velvet’s ear twitched without her permission toward the distinctive sound of a powerful Aura flare distorting the space around it. Long before she’d fully realized what she’d heard, everything in the cafeteria wavered in front of her eyes as it was caught in an explosive ripple of raw energy.

And then, almost simultaneously, there was a scream and the sound of shattering masonry as Fox, without breaking his casual stride, punched another student across the room and through a stone wall.

By the time anyone had a chance to look up it was over; the Atlas boy with the dog whistle was stirring feebly on the ground outside with chunks of marble and shards of glass littering the ground around him. As Velvet watched in shock, his Aura flickered and died.

For almost a full minute the entire cafeteria was frozen, except for the occasional sound of pieces of wall continuing to fall in the background.

The Atlas students recovered first.

“Hey!” one of them protested eloquently. “What the hell is your—”

There was a grating scrape of a wooden bench against stone as Yatsu stood. 

He wasn’t the only one. Other teams had noticed what was going on; across the cafeteria Velvet noticed several of the rookie teams—RWBY, JNPR, even newcomers from Mystral and Vacuo—had gotten to their feet at the same time. Ruby Rose looked like she was standing on the table in order for the gesture of solidarity to actually be visible over the heads of those still seated.

Coco paused long enough to run the backs of her fingers along Velvet’s cheek, a moment of reassurance; then she adjusted her shades and stood too. The tension wound tighter throughout the room; Fox was a master of waiting and watching, and the Atlas team suddenly looked much less willing to make the first move.

After a long moment, Coco cleared her throat.

“Welcome to Beacon,” she said, flat voice ringing across the room.

She sat down after that; Yatsu took his cue from her, and Fox followed his leader’s unspoken recall, turning away carelessly. Slowly, across the cafeteria, other students started to sit down, return to previous conversations. By the time Fox circled around the edge of the cafeteria and sat back down next to Coco, the noise level was back up to normal.

Smirking slightly, he handed her two plastic cups of creamer. She accepted them without a word, added them to her coffee, and slid it in front of him.

One sugar, two cream, Velvet realized belatedly. Exactly how Fox liked it.

“Nice form,” Coco murmured, leaning up to kiss him. He grinned and drank his coffee, and she turned back to Velvet. “Hey.”

It took Velvet a minute to find her tongue.

“Hi?” she managed.

Coco made an apologetic face and kissed Velvet’s ear, resting her forehead against Velvet’s temple for a moment before sighing.

“I’m sorry, kid,” she said. It wasn’t an expression of regret, exactly; she was apologizing for a necessity. But she was still apologizing. “But it wasn’t about you this time.”

Velvet took a few seconds to let that sink in. By the end of them, she realized she was grinning like an idiot and couldn’t stop. Coco put an arm around her and squeezed, making her squeak.

“I’m fine,” she said, flushed and happy and for once telling the truth. “I’m  _ fine, _ Coco.”

 


End file.
